The Crater; or, Vulcan’s Peak A Tale of the Pacific

ing in need of it. The question of salary, as respects the gov­ernor, was also settled. Mark had no occasion for the money, owning all the vessels, with most of the cargo of the Rancocus, as well as having brought out with him no less a sum than fi ve thousand dollars, principally in change – halves, quar­ters, shillings and six-pences. Then a question might well arise, whether he did not own most of the stock; a large part of it was his beyond all dispute, though some doubts might exist as to the remainder. On this subject the governor came to a most wise decision. He was fully aware that nothing was more de­moralizing to a people than to suffer them to get loose notions on the subject of property. Property of all kinds, he early de­termined, should be most rigidly respected, and a decision that he made shortly after his return from America, while acting in his capacity of chief magistrate, and before the new court went into regular operation, was of a character to show how he re­garded this matter. The case was as follows: –

tice, met this doctrine on the threshold. He admitted the sov­ereignty and its right, but placed it in the body of the colony, instead of in himself. As the party most interested took this view of the case, they who were disposed to regard his rights as more sweeping, were fain to submit. The land was therefore declared to be the property of the state. Ample grants, howev­er, were made both to the governor and Betts, as original pos­sessors, or discoverers, and it was held in law that their claims were thus compromised. The grants to Governor Woolston included quite a thousand acres on the Peak, which was com­puted to contain near thirty thousand, and an island of about the same extent in the group, which was beautifully situated near its centre, and less than a league from the crater. Betts had one hundred acres granted to him, near the crater also. He refused any other grant, as a right growing out of original possession. Nor was his reasoning bad on the occasion. When he was driven off, in the Neshamony, the Reef, Loam Island, Guano Island, and twenty or thirty rocks, composed all the dry land. He had never seen the Peak until Mark was in posses­sion of it, and had no particular claim there. When the council came to make its general grants, he was willing to come in for his proper share with the rest of the people, and he wanted no more. Heaton had a special grant of two hundred acres made to him on the Peak, and another in the group of equal extent, as a reward for his early and important services. Patents were made out, at once, of these several grants, under the great seal of the colony; for the governor had provided parchment, and wax, and a common seal, in anticipation of their being all wanted. The rest of the grants of land were made on a general

principle, giving fi fty acres on the Peak, and one hundred in the group, to each male citizen of the age of twenty-one years; those who had not yet attained their majority being com­pelled to wait. A survey was made, and the different lots were numbered, and registered by those numbers. Then a lottery, was made, each man’s name being put in one box, and the nec­essary numbers in another. The number drawn against any particular name was the lot of the person in question. A reg­istration of the drawing was taken, and printed patents were made out, signed, sealed, and issued to the respective parties. We say printed, a press and types having been brought over in the Rancocus, as well as a printer. In this way, then, every male of full age, was put in possession of one hundred and fi fty acres of land, in fee.

As the lottery did not regard the wishes of parties, many private bargains were made, previously to the issuing of the patents, in order that friends and connections might be placed near to each other. Some sold their rights, exchanging with a difference, while others sold altogether on the Peak, or in the group, willing to confi ne their possessions to one or the other of these places. In this manner Mr, Warrington, or Judge Warrington, as he was now called, bought three fi fty-acre lots adjoining his own share on the Peak, and sold his hundred-acre lot in the group. The price established by these original sales, would seem to give a value of ten dollars an acre to land on the Peak, and of three dollars an acre to land in the group. Some lots, however, had a higher value than others, all these things being left to be determined by the esti­mate which the colonists placed on their respective valuations.

As everything was conducted on a general and understood principle, and the drawing was made fairly and in public, there was no discontent; though some of the lots were certain­ly a good deal preferable to others. The greatest difference in value existed in the lots in the group, where soil and water were often wanted; though, on the wholes much more of both was found than had been at fi rst expected. There were vast de­posits of mud, and others of sand, and Heaton early suggested the expediency of mixing the two together, by way of produc­ing fertility. An experiment of this nature had been tried, un­der his orders, during the absence of the governor, and the re­sult was of the most satisfactory nature; the acre thus manured producing abundantly.

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own interests, and that the system is wisest which grants to him the amplest opportunity so to do.

stone, in endless quantities. For the purposes of agriculture, the place was nearly useless, there not being one thousand acres of good arable land in the whole island; but the moun­tains were perfect mines of treasure in the way of necessary supplies of the sorts mentioned.